The House Intelligence Committee wants to interview Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, after Michael Cohen mentioned his name several times during Wednesday's hearing as one person who would know more about Donald Trump's alleged criminal conduct, both before and during his time in office.
Cohen, in marathon testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, didn’t directly tie Weisselberg to the Trump camp’s interactions with Russia, the central preoccupation of the House intelligence committee.
But Weisselberg is uniquely positioned to address questions about financial transactions or relationships that concern potential foreign leverage over Trump – which new intelligence committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has indicated for months that he intends to investigate. Trump famously called any effort from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to look into his finances a “red line” that would trigger Mueller’s firing, and Schiff has stepped into the gap.
(...)
[E]arlier this month, Schiff substantially expanded the probe’s focus from what it was under Republican management. Schiff announced that the committee will investigate whether “any foreign actor” holds leverage over Trump, his family, associates or the Trump Organization, including financial leverage; and whether they were at any time at risk of or vulnerable to “foreign exploitation, inducement, manipulation, pressure or coercion” – as well as if Trump and his team have acted, while in government, “in service of foreign interests.”
(...)
“Allen is the one guy who knows everything,” a former Trump Organization official told The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson, who described Weisselberg as “the person in the company who knows more than anyone.”
There’s reason to believe that the Oversight Committee will also take interest in talking to Weisselberg itself. Asked if the committee would bring in Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr. following the hearing, Cummings said, “we probably will,” adding that there are areas the committee has to be cautious of looking into in order to avoid interfering with work done by special counsel Robert Mueller and the Southern District of New York.
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Cummings said anyone Cohen had named would likely be called in to testify.
(...)
Weisselberg has worked for the Trump organization for more than 40 years, and initially worked for Fred Trump, Trump’s father. He has remained a constant fixture in Trump world in the decades since he first fell into the family’s orbit, and is so close to the now-president that in a 2016 Wall Street Journal profile, a former Trump employee said, to describe the relationship between Weisselberg and Trump, “If Donald had a cold, he [Allen] would sneeze.”
Weisselberg, who received immunity to give grand jury testimony in the New York hush money case against Cohen, is not cooperating with the government in any way.
Some news outlets have suggested Weisselberg's testimony means he is cooperating with federal probes involving Cohen, the president and the Trump Organization. But three people with direct knowledge of the matter tell NBC News that Weisselberg is not cooperating, has never been a cooperating witness, and has provided limited details in the course of his testimony.
A person close to the Trump Organization tells NBC News that Weisselberg is still with the Trump Organization and defends Trump and the company.
The House Intelligence Committee Wants To Question The Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer Following Cohen’s Testimony (BuzzFeed News)
House Intel Will Call Trump Org Moneyman Allen Weisselberg To Testify (Daily Beast)
Trump Org's Weisselberg not cooperating with feds, sources say (NBC News)